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The consulting company Valoria has conducted a survey that probes the perspective of managers and executives regarding the situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania. According to the answers to the questionnaire applied in September 2021, during the fourth wave of the pandemic, 78% of companies consider that the situation generated by the pandemic in Romania is critical and very critical.
The managers of 58% of the 305 responding companies say that in the coming months, in the Romanian economic environment, things will evolve very unfavorably, 31% say that they will evolve somewhat unfavorably, and 11% answered “neither favorable nor unfavorable”. Moreover, 39% of the responding companies estimate that the recovery period of the current impact of the pandemic on the economy will be 9-12 months, 44% estimate that it will be 12-24 months, and 17% believe that the recovery period will be 24-36 months.
Put under the pressure of reorganizing the activity, implementing digital transformation programs, and reallocating resources to new projects, the respondents consider that the top 3 most important skills that the management team must master at this time are: change management (88%), value-based leadership and team motivation (63%) and techniques for neutralizing efficiency blockers (38%).
“The survey captures the level of agility and learning capacity of companies and people. Now companies can express intentions about the near future after they have already gone through three waves of pandemic. After pivoting in the online environment, companies are consolidating new processes looking for new ways to improve them. For employees, working in hybrid mode, at home and in the office, has shaped new expectations and attitudes.
New skills have been adopted and adapted to the new ways of working from an operational point of view. The management of remote or office teams has become more versatile, and the training of employees has become a priority. With technology-driven processes, and a management capable of managing remote teams, companies increase their productivity and competitiveness. That is why the training that supports these objectives is preferred by the managers and executive teams”, says Constantin Măgdălina, Emerging Trends & Technologies Expert, co-author of the research.
Digitalization forced by the pandemic context is a process that has not ended and probably will not end too soon. It is not enough for companies to move processes to the cloud, to ensure that they have a high-performance CRM and/or ERP system, or to use various SaaS or IaaS solutions. It is mandatory to train people to use them. Even with the technical issue addressed, it remains necessary to develop decision-making skills, project management, people management in this new context. Employees, in turn, must accept change and update their knowledge for efficient and sustainable work at home and in the office.
The pressure of change and the hybridization of the work environment has also provoked conflict situations and stimulated companies to consider even more that the topics that have communication at their center are relevant for the team of managers. Thus, the skills considered relevant by the responding companies for their teams to be trained in are the following ones: effective communication (75%), self-motivation mechanisms (71%), feedback and feedforward in the online environment (38%).
“Through this survey, we have intended to find out the perspective of managers and executives on the evolution of the impact of the pandemic. Although companies in the areas that have not been severely affected by the pandemic have achieved results beyond expectations in 2021, they face many day-to-day problems. To overcome them, continuous attention is needed to the training and motivation of the employees, and the study shows what are the competencies of interest for managers and their teams”, says Elena Badea, Managing Director, Valoria.
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